Thursday, October 20, 2011

Do you love your neighbor with the same love with which you love God?

The theological virtues: Faith, Charity, Hope

13th
Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matthew 22:34-40

You
shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and
with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second
is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

“Which is the greatest
commandment?” Such is the question of the scholar who put our Savior to the
test. However, though this man was acting in behalf of the Pharisees, it is
clear from the Scriptures, that he in fact had a deep desire to know Christ
Jesus and to become his follower. The goodness of the man is more clear in Mark’s
Gospel where our Lord commends and encourages him saying, You are not far from the kingdom of God (Mark 12:34).

The love of God and the love of
neighbor is the hinge of the whole moral life. In the final analysis, it is
love (i.e. supernatural charity) which determines our eternal reward – to die
with charity is to die in the state of grace and attain to heaven, to die
without charity is to die in mortal sin and to be condemned to the everlasting
punishments of hell.

What then is the nature of this
supernatural charity which fulfills the Law and the Prophets? Further, how does
the love of neighbor relate to the love of God?

Charity
as a theological virtue

Love is not an emotion, neither
is it a feeling. Love is not a thought or an idea. Love is not even, in the
first place, an action. Rather, love – we mean charity – is a thing, a virtue. Love (charity) is, to be precise, a theological virtue – which means that it comes from God as a free
gift, and that it leads us back to God.

Love, first and foremost, is a
theological virtue in the soul (specifically, in the will) which unites man to
God. Love is a reality, a thing, a res
(in Latin) – love is a “habit”, in the philosophical sense of that word: Love
is a thing in me, in my soul (in my
will), which allows me to do some action, namely it allows me to unite my will
to the divine will.

There
is only one virtue of charity

From the theological virtue of
charity, which is given by God and which makes man to be good and just, flow
particular acts of love. Though the theological virtue of charity is one, it is
one simple virtue and power in the soul; yet the actions which flow from this
virtue are manifold.

From this one virtue of charity
flow many acts of love, love for God and love for neighbor. Still, in the first
place, the virtue is one: there is only one theological virtue of charity, and
this single virtue gives man the ability to love both God and his neighbor.

Hence, if we ask, “Do I love my
neighbor with the same love with which I love God?” – our answer should, in the
first place, be “Yes!” Indeed, there is only one virtue of charity, and from it
flow acts of love both for God and for our neighbor.

The
greatest commandment is twofold

And now we see why it is that Jesus
could answer the question – “What is the greatest commandment?” – by referring to
not one but two commandments, “Love God and love your neighbor.” These two
commandments are not really two, but are united as one: Since it is the same
love (i.e. the same virtue of supernatural charity) which gives rise both to
love of God and love of neighbor.

It is precisely because there
is only one theological virtue of charity that St. John could tell us that
whoever does not love his neighbor does not love God.

The
“love of esteem” and “intensive love”

However, a difficulty arises:
We know that love of God, if it is true love, will make us love God above all
else – above ourselves, above our family, and above all created things. However,
we then have difficulty in reconciling this truth with the daily demands of our
life: Can one really expect a mother to love God more than her child? Is this
really possible? Certainly, we must admit that most mothers do not feel as intensive a love for God as they
do for their child.

To answer this question, we
turn to the great Dominican theologian, Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange:

“Charity, even in its least degree, makes us love God more
than ourselves and more than His gifts with an efficacious love of esteem,
because God is infinitely better than we and than every created gift.

“Efficacious love of esteem is not always felt, for example,
in aridity; and at the beginning it has not yet the intensity or spontaneity
that it has in the perfect, and especially in the blessed. A good Christian
mother feels her love for her child, whom she holds in her arms, more than her
love for God, whom she does not see; yet, if she is truly Christian, she loves
the Lord with an efficacious love of esteem more than her child.

“For this reason, theologians distinguish commonly between
appreciative love (love of esteem) and intensive love, which is generally
greater for loved ones whom we see than for those who are at a distance. But,
with the progress of charity, the love of esteem for God becomes more intense
and is known as zeal; in heaven its impetuosity will exceed that of all our
strongest affections.” (from The Three Ages of the
Interior Life)

3
comments:

Angela
said...

Fr. Ryan, I am expressing my thoughts to you about love of God and neighbor, and this probably is not meant for posting because of its length. I am not as learned as you are and your other readers who have excellent scholastic backgrounds about God. My knowing Him is merely experiential. I had wrestled with the problem of loving God and neighbor for sometime, because I felt like the rich young man who departed sadly because he could not give up what was asked of him in order to follow Jesus. I had really begged God to show me what is meant by this. My diemma was: how could I really give up my love for my daughters and grandchildren for God?

Then, I was diagnosed with urinary bladder cancer, and the doctor could not determine how much it had spread. To make the story short, a month before the surgery, I had time to reflect on my claim of loving God. First, and I am hesitant to reveal this for fear that people might think I am odd, I had that tinge of joy and excitement in knowing that should I die, I will finally see God, after of course, being purged. Then came the realization that my love for my daughters did not take away from my love of God. I even expressed to my daughters that my willingness to give back everything to Him heightened my love for them. I cannot put it exactly into words because there were two levels that were simulataneously going on in my understanding and sensation of love - God and them, and no one took away from the other. The more I loved God, the more I loved my children, and the more I loved my children, the more I loved God. It is as if no one takes away from anyone because they are all one. This is not a feeling, as you say, but a truth that is difficult to explain. The same way that I act towards others, not mere sentimentalism, but something that I act on because of some unknowable force of reaching out and knowing what is to be done at a particular given time. It is as if it is but natural for one to look after the well-being of another, whether one knows or likes the person. It is a strange understanding but beautiful and peaceful.

I am no saint and I still have a long way to go. And I know, that like the others, I also need the kindness of another. Thank you, Fr. Ryan.

Angela,Your story is very beautiful and inspiring ... indeed, to the simple and humble heart, the Good Savior will reveal the hidden mysteries of the Kingdom!

Please let me know, if you did not intend for me to post the comment (you had mentioned the length, but I believe it is not at all too long especially considering the witness of the love of God which you relate).

Many blessings for you, and praised be to God for the way his love is transforming your life! +

Thank you, Fr. Ryan for posting my comment and for the encouragement and blessings you have extended to me. I am just too happy to have expressed these thoughts because just like the Blessed Mother, I have pondered them in my heart!